Qualifying cancelled, Vinales on pole

DOHA: Maverick Vinales will start on pole in his first race for Yamaha at the Qatar MotoGP as rain forced cancellation of all sessions at the Losail International Circuit here on Saturday.

Conditions were deemed too dangerous and with little chance of improvement, Race Direction cancelled track action for the day and decided the grid based on combined times after the end of the third free practice session.

Suzuki's Andrea Iannone and Honda's reigning champion Marc Marquez will join Vinales on the front row.

Yamaha's nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi is tenth while Jorge Lorenzo will start 12th on his Ducati debut.

"It's been very strange, and strange that it rains in Qatar," said flying Spaniard Vinales who backed the decision to cancel the day's action.

"It was difficult today, it wasn't ok for wet tyres or dry tyres –- it was too risky to go out. For me it's safety first and it's tricky conditions."

Riders had feared that racing on a wet track under lights would be too dangerous and that such conditions would compromise visibility.

"When it rains here, there is also a strong wind and a lot of sand on the track," said Rossi, a four-time winner at the desert track.

Marquez, who has captured three of the last four world titles, agreed with Vinales that riding in the wet and under lights would have been dangerous.

"I would have liked to have time today to work more for the race, but you can't control the weather and we must think about safety first," said the Spaniard, a two-time winner in Qatar.

"It was too dangerous to ride, as it had rained quite heavily both overnight and this morning. In the end, we've done more than 300 laps on this track, when you consider the recent test and this week; that means everybody already has the setup and his own pace, and everybody already knows where he is for the race."